We have just tackled the first few chapters on verbs in Pratico and Van Pelt's Basics of Biblical Hebrew in the class I teach. Today I attempted to give my students a light-hearted reprieve from the normal routine by dividing them up into groups and having them work through the following text, almost exclusively limited to the the vocabulary and forms they had learned up until that time. I am open to suggestions for improvement, limited to the vocabulary of the first 14 chapters of Basics!
Translation: “The Adventures of הוֹלְמוּז שֶׁרְלָק, Part 1: A Sinister Plan”
[Prof. P. Himes tries to write modern fan fiction with biblical Hebrew, limited to the vocabulary in Pratico and Van Pelt's first 14 chapters]
בְּבָּ־יוֹא הָיָה וִשְׁמוֹ טוֹב אִישׁ אַחַת יֵשׁ
כָּל־הַיָּמִים. הָעִיר אֶל־עָנִי רָב אֶת־לֶחֶם שָׁלַח בְּבָּ־יוֹא
הַטּוֹב אֶת־הָאִישׁ שָׂנְאוּ אֲשֶׁר רַבִּים עִם־זָהָב רָב אֹיֵבִים לוֹ יֵשׁ רַק
, מִן־יְרֵחוֹ רָשָׁע אֹיֵב אָמַר הִנֵּה , בִּידֶן מֶלֶךְ מָלַךְ אֲשֶׁר שָׁלוֹשׁ בִּשְׁנַת
!! בּוּאַהַהַהַהַהַהַהַהַ , טוֹב הָיִיתִי לֹא וְאֲנִי הָיָה טוֹב כִּי אֹתוֹ אֶקְטֹל
(**cue suspenseful music**)
To be continued!!!!!
[1] Qal imperfect. Treat this as the future tense quivalent of קָטַלְתִּי.
בְּבָּ־יוֹא = "Bubba Joe" (a recurring character in my lectures for illustrative purposes)
בִּידֶן = a certain presidential name. I had tried to use "Trump" instead, but got stumped at how I could express that with the Masoretic vowels! [perhaps a shireq at the end?]
